Dominant Feelings
By: Tasmuna Omar
Problem/Question
Is the sensitivity of the nerves increased or decreased depending on your dominate or non-dominate side, and if so, which side will feel less pain, and which side will feel more pain ?
Hypothesis
I think that the sensitivity of the nerves does depend on a certain side because, when my hands fall asleep one side hurts more than the other side. I also think that the dominate side will feel less pain, and that the non-dominate side will feel more pain because, we tend to use our dominate side more so it is used to more pain than the non-dominate side is used to.
Materials
- A Big Bowl
- A normal sized bowl
- 18 cups of ice
- A Thermometer
- A Pencil
- A piece of paper
- A Stop Watch
- 18 cups of water
Independent Variable
The right and left hand on different people.
Dependent Variable
the numbness of the left and right hand.
Controlled variables
same bowl, same thermometer, same amount of ice each trial, same amount of ice each trial, same amount of ice each trial, and same amount of water each trial.
Research
- age doesn't affect the pain caused temperature
- if you sleep on your hand it will go numb
- you can make your hand fall asleep by siting on them too
- another way you can make your hand go numb is by putting it in really cold temperatures
- your hands fall asleep when your blood flow slows down because of a pressure stopping it, that's why if you sit on your hand it will fall asleep
- about 1 lb.of ice can cool 12 fl. oz. to 0 degrees Celsius, so it would take about 2 lbs. to cool 1 cup of water to 0 degrees Celsius
- a lot of numbness diseases are linked to cold whether like frostbite, so I know that the ice I will use in my experiment will actually affect the sensitivity of the nerves in hands
- putting your hand in ice water won't cause any severe damages like frostbite, as long as you don't keep your hands in the water for too long
Procedure
- put 3 cups of ice in the big bowl
- put 3 cups of water in the big bowl
- put 3 cups of ice in another bowl
- let someone put their hands in the ice water when the ice is 40 degrees Fahrenheit
- start the stop watch that should be set to 1 minute when the person puts their hand in the ice water
- add additional ice to the bowl from the other bowl to keep the temperature the same, or take away ice to the other bowl to keep the temperature the same
- when the stop watch goes off let the person remove their hands from the bowl
- before the person does anything with their hands ask them which hand is more numb, record the data on a piece of paper
- repeat steps 4-8 with the same person twice more
- repeat steps 1-8 with 3 other people (testing each person 3 times) but instead off getting new ice each time only get new ice when you test someone new
Pictures From investigation
Graph
Results
The right hand and left hand was very close in pain, but the right hand hurt more. The people I tested said that their right hand hurt more then the left hand 7 times. And they also said that the left hand hurt more then the right hand 5 times.
Conclusion
My hypothesis was incorrect and correct . I rightly predicted that one hand would hurt more than the other. But I was also incorrect because, I hypothesized that the left hand would hurt more then the right. When in reality the right hand hurt the most. So pain does have a side that it affects the most, and it is the right side, also pain is increased depending on right side.